This time, he waited just one week before seeing his GP. In April 2013, Tom had another chest infection, followed again by a persistent cough.
LUNG CANCER XRAY SKIN
Tom suffered no side effects apart from a slight sore throat which disappeared over time.Some patients can become nauseous or have reddening of the skin like sunburn at the site of the rays, but Tom says he was lucky and didn’t have any of these problems. Lying perfectly still I was surrounded by a myriad of lights and moving equipment for the next ten minutes.” “I put my arms above my head and the procedure was like something out of Star Wars. He still bears the scars – three ‘tattoos’ imprinted on his chest with a special pen, pinpricks to make sure he was in the right position for treatment whilst lying on the bed. He was admitted as an inpatient to save the burden of travelling from Falkirk and received three doses of radiotherapy a day for the next 12 days. Tom was treated at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow in Glasgow. Tom was told it was the non-aggressive type and treatment would be surgery or radical radiotherapy – in his case the latter was the best option. Until the infection was eradicated clinicians weren’t able to ascertain just how large the tumour was.Ī dose of strong antibiotics did the trick and the tumour was revealed to be 4cm by 2.5cm. Tom was referred to the chest clinic at Forth Valley Royal Hospital for more X rays and scans which revealed there was still some infection in his right lung but the tumour was in the middle. “I asked the GP if it was treatable and she said yes”. “I was kind of stunned but I had started to think that there might be something wrong because I had lost a wee bit of weight around my waist”, he said. Four days later the senior partner in his GP practice phoned to advise that he had a tumour in his right lung. The cough did not disappear so Tom heeded the advice.
However, he was advised that if the cough was still there in aweek’s time, he needed to go to get an X-ray. When Tom finally arrived at the surgery he was examined but the doctor could not hear anything in his chest. But Tom put the appointment off for four weeks because his daughter was getting married, and he and his wife had booked a week’s holiday following the wedding. With the help of antibiotics the infection cleared up but, what was unusual, was the persistent tickly cough that was left behind.īoth his wife and office colleagues nagged him to see his GP. Eight years later Tom developed a chest infection, a condition he was prone to because of asthma. He smoked around 15 a day but decided to quit the habit in 2003. NHS Forth Valley Employee Director Tom Hart rolled his own cigarettes.